k, news.
lots of things going on in the world, of course, but the one news item that seems the oddest and most bizarre involves the arrest of henry louis gates, jr in boston. henry louis gates, jr is a professor at harvard. an esteemed professor at harvard. he’s hosted many pbs specials, written many books and papers, and is generally considered one of the pre-eminent academics in the country.
yesterday he was arrested for, essentially, going into his own house. he was returning from a trip to china, and when he couldn’t get into his front door (it was jammed) he went around and went into the back door. he and his driver then tried to un-jam the front door. a neighbor called the police and said ‘two men are trying to break into a house’. the police arrived and arrested professor gates when he apparently raised his voice.
he raised his voice because the police had come and asked to see his identification and ask why he was trying to gain entrance to the house (well, because it’s a house that he lives in and that is provided to him by harvard university).
he asked to see the policemens identification and they refused and arrested him.
oh, did i mention that henry louis gates, jr is african-american?
which raises the question, would a white professor trying to get into his harvard university housing have received a visit from the local police? would the local police have demanded to see a white professors identification in his own house? would a white professor have been arrested for asking to see the policemens identification? the answer to those questions is, well, no.
we have an african-american president. we’ve had 2 african-american secretaries of state. we have an african american attorney general. there are many african american ceo’s and heads of media corporations and governors and elected officials and police chiefs around the country. but unfortunately the united states is still, in many places, a racist country.
the irony, of sorts, is that henry louis gates, jr, has written repeatedly about his hope that the united states will eventually become a color blind country. and in many ways the united states has become color blind. but in many ways the united states is still sadly and disappointingly racist.
i can’t imagine that professor gates is going to be spending too much time behind bars (kind of hard to send someone to prison for being upset about being questioned by the police for being in his own house).
it just reminds us that america, for all of it’s progress in the last 50 years, is still not out of the woods where it concerns race.
-moby